Monday Night Football! The Mecca of matchups! Eh, not anymore . . . Marquis matchups have been completely and thoroughly watered down by TNF, SNF, and sometimes even Saturday Night Football. Can’t say it enough, but it’s time the NFL drops Thursday Night Football. Maybe if they had 2 a year, that would be special, and only for teams coming off a BYE week. Also, no need for Sunday Night Football either, leave Monday Night Football as the marquis matchup, and dump SNF. I don’t even want to talk about Saturday Night Football. Do they realize that some of us fans are married, or in a relationship? “OK honey, you remember I’m watching football tonight, and all day tomorrow, and then Monday Night too, right?” Yeah, good luck with that!

So the Ajayi-less Dolphins travel to Carolina to play the Panthers. The Dolphins are not the only team who’s accomplished their record with smoke and mirrors. If the Dolphins have no business being 4-4, then the Carolina Panthers certainly have no business being 6-3. Carolina’s defense has been their savior, but their offense isn’t all that much better than ours. Cam Newton is what I’ve always thought he was, a super athletically talented QB who in reality, just isn’t that good a QB. Cam has a QBR of 78.4, with 1978 yards passing, 10 TD’s/11 INT’s. To his credit, he’s completing passes at a much higher percentage than his entire career, 62.4%, but take away his rushing threat as a QB, and this guy just doesn’t cut it.

The Panthers defense has been inconsistent, pitching great games against the Niners, Bills and Bucs allowing only 3 runs (points). On the the bad side, they gave up 34 to the Saints (L 34-13), 30 to the Patriots (W 33-30), and 28 to the Eagles (L 28-23). The defense of course features the league’s best MLB, Luke Keuchly, along with other standouts, LB Thomas Davis, LB Shaq Thompson, DT Kawann Short, DE’s Mario Addison and Julius Peppers, 6.5 sacks and 7.5 sacks respectively, and DT Star Lotuleilei

On offense, the Kelvin Benjamin-less Panthers bring a 2 headed backfield attack with a power attack from Jonathan Stewart, and a RB/WR hybrid Christain McCaffery (Former Bronco’s WR Ed McCaffrey’s son). Stewart barely leads the team in rushing with 350 yards, just 9 yards ahead of one Cam Newton. McCaffrey easily leads the team in receptions with 54, and has 406 yards receiving along with 2 TD’s. He also has 183 yards rushing, to give him nearly 600 all purpose yards.

The Dolphins will once again bring their own 2 headed rushing attack of Damien Williams and Kenyan Drake. So far, it looks like Williams is more McCaffrey while Drake is more Stewart, but don’t be surprised to see Drake catch more passes, and Williams get some more carries too. It’s a work in process, and I don’t believe anyone’s role has been defined. Devante Parker is back, and WOW what a catch he made last Sunday night! Ted Larsen should be starting at LG, which will probably mean Jesse Davis, who played LG this past Sunday will now move out to RT to replace hamstring injured Ja’Wuan James. Davis will mostly be going up against Charles Johnson on rushing downs, and Julius Peppers on passing downs, both good, veteran DE’s. Keep an eye on that, as the Dolphins will be sending some help over to his side.

On defense, we get recently activated off suspension S T.J. McDonald back! TE Ed Dickson is quietly having a nice season for the Panthers, and w/o Benjamin, he may be targeted even more, so look to see if T.J. McDonald is a factor there, or do we let Kiko Alonso chase him around all night. We’ll see Sunday night. The defense looks so good at times, and so bad at times, you just don’t know what to expect. I hope T.J. brings some much needed energy, and maybe a guy who can cover a TE effectively.

All we need is to add a RB who can get tough yards between the tackles. He doesn’t have to be the workhorse back. You can probably find backs like that in the mid rounds. Drake and Williams with their pass catching ability can change the dynamic of the offense. I still think Drake has a chance to be a more complete back.

Just back from Baltimore where it was 22 degrees at 7 AM today!
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HOW do you like that ASS-KICKING MIAMI is laying on the Irish??? talk about over rated, that fat toad of a coach in South Bend, and HIS TEAM, are #1 when it comes to over-hyped LOSERS!!! The Old Dolfan is gonna “make a few pennies” on this game when the dust settles. But in this day of upsets, a possible Mississippi State win over ‘BAMA would be even bigger than Auburns’ win over the DAWGS! –I can’t ever remember #1, #2 and #3 going down in the same day ever!
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CONGRATS to my FAU Owls for trouncing La. Tech in Ruston (Terry Bradshaw’s old school) 48-23. FAU’s star running back, Devin Singletary, now has 23 rushing touchdowns this season!!!–Bring on UCF!!!!!

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — Josh Allen passed for one touchdown and ran for another before being sidelined by injury, and Wyoming’s stout defensive play helped it weather the loss of its quarterback in a 28-14 win over Air Force on Saturday night.

The Flying Pig says:
November 11, 2017 at 1:18 pm
People are saying it’s not going to be a very good draft class
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It will separate the men from the boys; the legit GM’s from the pretenders.

Watched the Virginia vs Louisville game yesterday and while Jackson had the better day throwing touchdowns I’m still more impressed with Benkert. Jackson is one hell of an athlete but it doesn’t translate to the qb position in the NFL.

Agree that the Browns are doing the re-build right for the future even if not ready yet and that the Phins have been statistically bad on the O side….but then the woes of our offense have been clear to all. And not sure about 0-8, but heck yeah we could be 2-8 or 1-7 right now, but then we could have been 6-10 last year too.

I believe Miami will pick somewhere between 10-15, I don’t think they take a guard at that point, we are loaded at DE with Hayes being the only one to resign and they should do that, I believe you need a CB to push Howard and Tank, you shouldn’t take a RB that early and i doubt there’s one available that would justify a 10-15 pick

Just watched the first half of the ND/Miami game. Miami dominated in every area except the left side of ND’s o-line. I was watching just the line play and the left side would get a 5 yd push while the right side was in the back field. I’ll tell you, Miami has some serious talent in that front 7. Very impressive. What I got out of the 1st half, Miami has a lot of talent on defense and the left side of ND’s o-line is really good.

Glad the Hurricanes are doing so well….and maybe more so that Dolphins management is now as well.
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“Hard Rock Stadium’s season-long battle for a decent playing surface paid off Saturday night as the University of Miami mowed down Notre Dame 41-8 on what looked like pristine grass on national television.

The Dolphins recently changed vendors in an effort to get higher-quality grass that was properly treated to quickly take root. Those efforts paid off Saturday as the field bordered on a putting-green feel before the game and hardly a divot was kicked up once the Hurricanes kicked it into high gear….At least by midnight Saturday night, the field looked just fine.”

OK all you draftniks. All of you will be SHOCKED when I tell you that O-Line ABSOLUTELY has to be priority #1 with the Fins. AND, #2 should be QB, but ONLY if the “right guy” is available. A TRADE involving Tannehill would not shock me, if we got a high enough draft pick back and took “the right guy” to take Tanny’s place. Otherwise, I’d stick one more year with Tannehill and see what happens.

I’m NOT SURE if T-BAUM would recognize and select the right guy even if he “BIT HIM IN THE ASS!” Truth is, our scouting department needs a top-to-bottom overhaul starting with T-BAUM himself. Ross SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS the same day he fired IRELAND!!! – – -But he didn’t!! He’s let this huge problem fester WAY TOO LONG, resulting with so-so talent in many places that we’ve paid WAY TOO MUCH FOR!! – – Our salary cap problems would choke a horse!!!

ANCIENT BILL POLIAN would be a big improvement over what we’ve got now. The BEST solution would be to select “the right up and coming asst GM” away from another team and sign him to be OUR GM. But I’m guessing few/none of those guys would want to work for Ross, given Ross’s putrid history of picking “the wrong guy” way too often.

ONLY A CHANGE IN OWNERSHIP will allow this franchise to prosper as before. My wild guess is that change will be coming in about 4 years OR LESS.

Watching that one too like Ken (but not like had much choice)….biggest game for us going on in this slate. Even if would be nice if the Bengals beat the Titans or the Colts the Steelers. Not worried about the Yets any more.

You are still thinking playoffs. We are not going to the playoffs. Our fate was sealed in pre season. It is hard for any team to overcome the loss of their starting Quarterback for the season. That combined with some other injuries it’s too much to overcome. I just want to see us be competitive

I’m really only worried about the Dolphins. Doesn’t really matter what others do if we keep going at a .500 pace. When it’s all said and done, it’s probably going to take 9 wins with tie breakers or 10 wins to get a wildcard.

Ken — you never know, even if agree playoffs not really too much chance on that. But then we do have four games with the Pats and the Bills. If nothing else would like the chance to be there. Makes it more interesting.

I think more likely we will draft somebody in rounds 2-3 like Thorson or the kid from Wyoming to develop. I think trading for Brissette will be costly and who knows what is going on with Luck right now

To have a chance you figure they will have to go 3-3 against KC, Carolina, Buffalo (2), and NE (2). Plus get wins against Denver and TB, which they should. …but with this team you should never assume a victory. 😉

We are the 7th seed right now. The conference records are all jumbled up too. We have to go on a little bit of a run and win some games. If we can’t do that then yeah we won’t make it. But we don’t know what’s going to happen yet. We are definitely still alive.

Son:
I know Darnold is not having a great year but I still think he is going to be a stud. He has all the tools and has in the past played well in big games. I don’t know why he is struggling so much this year. If I were him I would stay in school one more year

TIM: I BELIEVE there WAS a way we could have moved up in round 3 and taken Elflein had we wanted to. But we didn’t WANT TO. If “TANK” tanks, NOT taking Elflein will look huge. If “Tank” makes All-Pro, we’ll look like geniuses. RIGHT NOW, I’d rather have the “ELF,” who made 1st team Big-10 BOTH at G and C (two different seasons)!!!

Bills get rocked by the Saints. Saints are good, but man . . . Seems like anything happen in the NFL any week. It’s W-I-D-E open, but I don’t really put us in there as contenders, although at 4-4, we’re certainly still in. If we can somehow get a win this week, we’d be in pretty good shape.

ACCORDING TO ESPN, Florida Atlantic’s Devin Singletary leads Division I football with 23 touchdowns; Second is San Diego State running back Rashaad Penny with 18; Penn State’s Saquon Barkley is tied for 6th with 16 touchdowns.
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Saturday Night FAU takes on arch rival FIU in the annual “Shula Bowl Game,” held this year at Howard Schnellenberger Field in Boca Raton. Both Schnellenberger and Shula traditionally attend this game. An 8th straight win by FAU will win the C-USA Eastern Division title and a spot in the C-USA Championship Game, which will be played at the higher ranked team’s home stadium (likely FAU’s stadium).

Thanks, Brother! And you’re EXACTLY right about Keenum playing within himself. I’m actually surprised he’s taking off this year in a new Offense on a brand new team. He’s come a long way and I hope he’s finally arrived. I’m really proud of the kid.

We’ve got a great opportunity tomorrow night after the stej and Bills lost today… and hopefully the Patsies* will lose tonight against old Horse Face’s team.

The Carolina turf shouldn’t be an issue for Mr. Wake and company to bend the edge on Cam Newton’s O-Line. Panthers are 2-2 at home this year, so there’s that. If our Defense is resurgent tomorrow night, I see a win and we’re in the thick of things for a playoff berth.

I have Landry in one league, and I need him to get me about 10 points, and Demaryius Thomas to do the same and I’ll win in one league. In the other one, I’m facing Landry, but he also has Cam Newton, Gronk and James White going, I’m up by 70 points. If Landry goes off, he might beat me. Obviously, if the Dolphins win, I’ll be happy no matter what happens, but I need the win to make sure I’m in the playoffs.

True, Landry isn’t usually a big points guy in FF, but you never know. He usually catches a fair amount of passes, and it’s a 1/2 PPR, so say 10 receptions for 80 yards and a TD will quickly add up. It’s all good, i hope he does well, and I hope we somehow upset the panthers. If the offense gets it going, I’m hoping the defense can do enough to win it.

I have to disagree with the left side of Notre Dame’s o-line. Miami exposed them big time. They couldn’t run to either side in that game. Canes defensive speed was just too much for them.
I want Miami to start going with the bigger, stronger o-linemen in their scheme but these guys played like they had concrete in their underwear.

I think this game tonight is going to be the big turning point for this team. At 4-4 and with the Jets and Bills both losing and with the Broncos losing last night they have a golden opportunity to show everyone if they are for real or not.

If they win they could be right back in the thick of things and with games vs NE & BUF coming up could make a statement. So, do they go out there and win tonight or is this going to be a situation where we find out the team just doesn’t have what it takes to compete at a high level this year?

I look at the situation as it stands right now and have to think maybe we’re going in the right direction but we still may be at least 2 years away from competing for the division. Still some holes that need to be filled and there’s not going to be enough resources with the cap to fill them all.

So, we’re going to need to bring in young players thru the draft to get it done and it will take a couple of years to get them to the point where we need them to be.

Like I said in my latest write up though. The Browns, with all their resources, even at 0-8 could be a team that surprises everyone and starts to put it together if for no reason other than they just have all that cap and all those draft picks and with the talent they can bring in they could end up surpassing the Dolphins in terms of being competitive sooner.

professorloumiamidolphinsblog says:
November 13, 2017 at 5:07 am
I look at the situation as it stands right now and have to think maybe we’re going in the right direction
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“Going in the right direction”??
If we can claim to be going in the right direction it all starts with the philosophy of the HC, I question the HCs move to dump Ajayi. I think that move has bit us in the ass!
After that move you have to question Gases philosophy, he also said early last year that he told his staff to not let him get away from using Ajayi.
what does this all mean?
I take it that it means running the ball is not his priority and IMHO I can’t see how that’s
“going in the right direction”
NE is going to kill us, they will make us beat them passing and disregard the run.

If Ajayi was giving the coach problems i’m sure there are other ways to handle him then to send him packing, the 4th rnd compensation we got for him may not even make the team and we had him on a rookie contract for all of next year! does this sound like a good coaching decision?
so i can’t for the life of me see how we’re going in the right direction, in fact i think we’re going right back to where we were with philbin and Lazor. a very predictable easy read Cinderella passing team

I’m not saying this to be argumentative, but isn’t it funny saying that Ajayi, who was a 5th RD pick is so valuable, but a 4th RD pick won’t make the team? You’re not even giving Drake and Williams a chance, and FTR, they did pretty well in their 1st game getting major action.

Mike not an argument ever, i respect your opinion even though sometimes i might not agree with it.
that 5th round player was projected as 1st to 2nd round talent, the only reason he slid was due to knee issues which obviously didn’t hold him back.

This post is for those who don’t understand “an easy read”
Being an easy read means other teams have a good idea what you’re going to do for the most part of the game, two options run or pass, when you don’t have the ability to pick up the tough yards on the ground you get forced into long down and distance so passing is the only option. teams bring in a light package and take away your pass, being that your RB is light in the ass they can play this package most of the game, and make your only viable solution to pass very difficult.